CObirders, The ABA changed their rules for counting reintroduced indigenous birds on 9/27/14. Populations no longer need to be self-sustaining. They only need to have "successfully hatched young in the wild." This has caused a lot of discussion on the AZ/NM listserv regarding condors, which are now legal to count.
Do I recall correctly that a condor was reported from southwestern CO a few years ago? If so, would those who chased it and saw it be able to count it now? There is an ABA rule that lets a bird observed in the past "when it was not considered a valid species" to be counted when it becomes a valid species. I guess you'd have to determine if there had been successful hatching of young in AZ before you saw the bird in CO. The in-house discussion of the decision to make the rule change is very interesting, particularly the lone dissenter's statement. It's available here: http://listing.aba.org/rsec-vote-2014-04/ Scott Roederer Estes Park -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/DF0C6D49-9EB8-4AA9-84CA-72AD0144B70B%40estesvalley.net. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
